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A parent’s worst nightmare come true

From the first moment I held my son in my arms, I secretly feared that I would somehow fail him as a parent, or that somehow he might fail me. In a split second, the perfect moment turned into my worst nightmare– What if my son was ‘different’?

I harbored and internalized my fear, not sharing it with my wife or parents. Given that my father-in-law is ‘different’ (for the last 60 years); I did not dare divulge my trepidations with him, lest I might offend.

Suddenly, my worst fears were realized– I discovered my son was ‘different’, too.

I tried not to care and brushed of my son’s coming out as perfectly normal and thought he would somehow grow out of it. Sadly, he did not.

Each day as I came home from work, it was all he talked about. He wanted to act on his urges and knew all of the terminology associated with being ‘different’. Surprisingly, he even knew the names of many ‘different’ people. I was shocked! Where was he learning about this? Certainly not from me!

My wife did not seem to care about our son being ‘different’ either. Her only concern was that every waking moment was spent discussing it. He even found a television show that openly discussed being ‘different’ that he watched instead of cartoons.

Caring ward members chided me and admonished me that it was not normal for my son to be ‘different’. Their rebuke strengthened my resolve to love my son no matter what and let him choose his own path…even if it meant being ‘different’.

Just last week, I told my son that I was against being ‘different’ myself, but told him that I supported his decision to be ‘different’. I told him I would not be ‘rooting’ for his side to win and probably never would be. We spent several nights on the couch, talking about being ‘different’ and my son defiantly telling me that he was ‘cheering’ for his side to win. *sigh*

When I woke up this morning, I realized that I would get a short reprieve from my ‘different’ son. His favorite show would no longer be on television in the morning and I would not have to listen to my son confess to others about his being ‘different’, at least not until the spring.

Yes, I’ll admit it; my son is a Yankees fan. I’m not especially proud of it, but I love my son. No matter what.

There are certain kinds of “different-ness” that would not be tolerated in the Geoff B household. Don’t care that much about the Yankees one way or the other, but if he decides to be a Cal fan rather than a Stanford fan, he’s outta the house. I would let him come back for Thanksgiving and Christmas but his “different” friends would not be allowed.

I’m confident my wife would not tolerate Cal fans in our house either, Geoff. There are just certain lines that should not be crossed. Thankfully, my son is an ASU and Oregon fan (his grandpa went to Oregon). He will probably end up rooting for Utes as well, since my dad went to Utah.

At least my son is well rounded in the teams he roots for. Now if I can just keep him from the Dallas Cowboys!

As a long-time (and long-suffering) Mets fan, I feel your pain. I am pleased to report, however, that whatever genetic accident resulted in your son’s becoming a Yankees fan never occurred in our home, and we are, if not committed Mets fans, at least confirmed Yankees haters.

And that’s the case even though my son, this past week, found that his hatred for the Phillies was even greater than his hatred of the Yankees. But now that horrible week is past, we can settle back to straight, unalloyed Yankees hatred.

Unfortunately, my 2 year old son loves to watch “High School Musical 3” which ends on the highly improbable note of one of the high school musicians(?) deciding to go to Cal to be closer to his Stanford-bound girlfriend. Don’t they know that they are doomed to failure with such a foundation, or at least to having three-armed kids?

I was at game 3 Saturday night. In the row in front of ours an argument between and Phillie and Yankee fan broke out-surprise, surprise. They weren’t more than one insult each into their argument when the Yankee fan called the Phillies fan “gay” and used another epithet for gay people. The Phils fan pointed to his son as proof he is not gay. The Yankee fan responded by chiding the Phils fan for deigning to disrespect someone who defends this country. The Phils fan was a drunken boor, but does anyone really wonder why people get so tired of Yankee fans so fast. They will be insufferable for the next year. I feel for you with your son.

I’ve been a (dormant) Yankees fan my entire life (having been born in NYC). However, I’m worried the Obama administration may declare all major league baseball teams “world champions” in line with their “Outcome Based Education” emphasis. Remember, everyone needs to feel like a winner – even the Chicago Cubs.

Actually, R Biddulph, I think we should allow the Cubs to win next year. Bud Selig should spot them 10 runs at the start of each game and give them $100M extra to buy, er, sign the best players in baseball. It’s high time the Cubs won a World Series!!! Go Cubs!